May 28, 2010, Other views

By Rebecca Bynum

These local bat­tles over mosque con­struc­tion under­score the need for a national debate on the impact Islam is hav­ing on Amer­ica, includ­ing Mus­lim immi­gra­tion rates and the build­ing of mosques in par­tic­u­lar.

For their part, Mus­lims seem to view Judeo-Christian val­ues and cul­ture as a threat to Islam, which is why there are no Jews, much less syn­a­gogues, remain­ing in places like Saudi Ara­bia. Chris­tians are not allowed to take up per­ma­nent res­i­dency there, much less to build churches or to wor­ship freely. The oppres­sion of the Copts in Egypt and Chris­tians and Jews in Iran is well known. Bagh­dad which, as late as the 1930s boasted a large Jew­ish pop­u­la­tion, now har­bors per­haps a dozen or so old Jew­ish men who are too frail to leave. Iraq’s ancient Chris­t­ian pop­u­la­tion is rapidly declin­ing, dri­ven out by the Mus­lim major­ity there, a stark illus­tra­tion of Amer­i­can impo­tence in the face of Islam. Less well known are per­se­cu­tions of Hin­dus in Pak­istan and Bangladesh, Bud­dhists in Thai­land, Chris­tians in Indone­sia, Chris­tians and ani­mists across Africa from Sudan to Nige­ria, and the list goes on.

Most Amer­i­cans, how­ever, do not view Islam, intol­er­ant as it is, as a real threat to our val­ues and believe we should demon­strate the virtue of tol­er­ance at all costs, oth­er­wise we will have lost the val­ues we are try­ing to defend. How­ever, tol­er­at­ing the intol­er­ant is a one-way street towards intol­er­ance, and so we have to debate the issue openly. When is it wise for tol­er­ance to be tem­porar­ily suspended?

Pres­sure to reform

If we are going to influ­ence the Mus­lim world at all, we have to use what pres­sure we can rea­son­ably bring to bear. So until such time as Chris­t­ian churches, Jew­ish syn­a­gogues, Jain, Hindu and Bud­dhist tem­ples are allowed to be built freely in Mus­lim lands, other faiths are free to pros­e­ly­tize, Mus­lims are com­pletely free to leave Islam with­out fear of retal­i­a­tion and Chris­tians, Jews, Hin­dus and all non-Muslims face no more per­se­cu­tion at the hands of Mus­lims, no more mosques should be built in Amer­ica, as a mat­ter both of fair­ness and in order to pres­sure Mus­lim coun­tries to reform.

Then there is the fur­ther ques­tion of what is being taught in the mosques. In Nashville, one of our most promi­nent edu­ca­tors on Islam, Pro­fes­sor Awadh A. Bin­hazim, pres­i­dent of Olive Tree Edu­ca­tion and who reg­u­larly teaches courses on Islam at Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­sity, stated before a Van­der­bilt audi­ence in 2006 con­cern­ing the Muham­mad car­toon con­tro­versy, “Islam is not some­thing to ridicule” and “all Mus­lims” view the pub­li­ca­tion of car­toons depict­ing Muham­mad as a “provo­ca­tion.” He also stated that 99.9 per­cent of Mus­lims feel deeply offended by the car­toons even if they have not responded vio­lently and that they do not share the value of free­dom of speech as it is rec­og­nized in this coun­try. It is clear Islam car­ries a deep scrip­tural ani­mus towards Jews and that women are not con­sid­ered the equal of men, cer­tainly a bench­mark of mod­ern civilization.

So we must ask our­selves, do we want to aid and abet the spread of these ideas by allow­ing the unhin­dered build­ing of mosques in America?

Rebecca Bynum, who lives in Nashville, is pub­lisher and man­ag­ing edi­tor of the New Eng­lish Review. Her e-mail address is http://www.newenglishreview.org.

Sharia Law for Non-Muslims – Chapter 2
May 31, 2010

What is Sharia?

Sharia law is Islamic law. Sharia is the basis for every demand that Muslims make on our society. When schools are asked to give up a room for Islamic prayer, that is asking us to implement Sharia law. When a Muslim wears a head scarf, that is in obedience to Sharia law. When our newspapers would not publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons, our newspapers were submitting to the demands of Sharia law. When demands are made for our hospitals to treat Muslim women in special ways, that is Sharia. When our textbooks have to be vetted by Muslim organizations before they are used in our schools, that is in accordance with Sharia law.

The attack on the World Trade Center was done in adherence to the rules of war, jihad, found in Sharia law. Sharia law is the basis for the religious, political and cultural life of all Muslims.

Sharia law is being implemented more and more in America and yet there is no knowledge about what Sharia actually is since public, private or religious schools do not teach it.

THE GOOD NEWS

The easiest way to learn about Islam is through Sharia law. Through learning about Sharia you are introduced to the Koran and Mohammed in a practical manner. It is easy to learn when you can see the direct application and examples.

When you know Sharia, Islam suddenly makes sense, it all fits together. Most people think Islam is complicated or even impossible to understand, but when you understand its principles, Islam is very, very logical. It is based on different views of humanity, logic, knowledge, and ethics. Once you understand the principles and logic, you not only can explain what and why something is happening, but you will be able to predict the next step in the process.

UNDERSTANDING THE REFERENCE NUMBERS

Before you can understand Sharia, you have to learn about three books that are the basis of Sharia.
Each ruling or law in Sharia is based on a reference in the Koran or the Sunna, the perfect example of Mohammed (found in two texts-Hadith and Sira). Each and every law in Islam must come from the Koran and the Sunna.

We know the Sunna by knowing about the personal details of Mohammed’s life. We know how he cleaned his teeth and which shoe he put on first. We know the Sunna because we have the Sira and the Hadith.

You probably think that the Koran is the bible of Islam. Not true. The bible of Islam is the Koran, the Sira and the Hadith. These three texts can be called the Trilogy.

The Koran is a small part, only 14% of the total words, of the doctrine that is Islam. The text devoted to the Sunna is 86% of the total textual doctrine of Islam. Islam is 14% Allah and 86% Mohammed.

Sharia is nothing more than a condensation and extrapolation of the Koran and the Sunna. Therefore, it is impossible to understand the Sharia without some understanding about the doctrine found in the Koran, Hadith and the Sira. Turn to any page after this chapter and you will find that most of the paragraphs have an index number.

The classic Sharia law text is the Reliance of the Traveller, N. Keller, Amana Publications. (Yes, the correct spelling is Traveller with a double l.) It is a 1,200 page book devoted to such subjects as: political control of non-Muslims, prayer, jihad, wills and estates, punishment, court rules, and land use. It covers legalities and theology.

Here is a typical paragraph:

08.0 APOSTACY FROM ISLAM

08.1 When a person who has reached puberty and is sane, voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.

[Bukhari 9,83,17] Mohammed: “A Muslim who has admitted that there is no god but Allah and that I am His prophet may not be killed except for three reasons: as punishment for murder, for adultery, or for apostasy.”

The o8.1 is an index number in the Sharia law text, The Reliance of the Traveller. The text is divided into divisions, a, b, c, … This particular law is found in division o; section 8; subsection 1. With the index number, o8.1, you can read the source, The Reliance of the Traveller.

We not only have the law, apostates (people who leave Islam) should be killed, but we have the supporting doctrine found in a hadith, a sacred text used along with the Koran. A hadith is what Mohammed did or said. This particular hadith is by Bukhari, the major collector of Mohammed’s stories. Notice the index number–9,83,17. This is like a chapter and verse index so that you can go and read the original. All of the Hadith, including Bukhari, can be found on many university Internet sites.

Here is a Sharia law supported by the Koran:

09.0 JIHAD
Jihad means war against Kafirs to establish Islam.
Koran 2:216 You are commanded to fight although you dislke it. You may hate something that is good for you, and love something that is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not.

Here we have the Sharia defining what jihad is and then gives its foundational reference for the authority. Again, you can verify the accuracy of the Koran verses and the original reference, 09.0, in the Reliance of the Traveller.

There is one last type of reference to a supporting document.

DEALING WITH A REBELLIOUS WIFEm10.12 When a husband notices signs of rebelliousness…
Ishaq969 … Men were to lay injunctions on women lightly for they were prisoners of men and had no control over their persons.

Here we have the usual Sharia reference number, m10.12, which allows you to read the original reference. The Ishaq index number, 969, is a margin note reference that allows you to look in the Sira (Mohammed’s biography-The Life of Muhammad, A. Guillaume) and verify the truth of the reference.

BELIEVABLE AND AUTHORITATIVE

This is fact-based knowledge based upon critical thought and analysis. What you see here can all be independently verified for yourself.

This is a very different approach than asking a Muslim or an “expert” in the media. If a Muslim or any expert says something about Islam that disagrees with the Koran or Sunna, then the expert is wrong. If the expert says something that agrees with Koran or Sunna, then the expert is right, but redundant.

Once you know Koran and Sunna, you don’t need anybody else.

POLTICAL ISLAM

The largest part of the Trilogy is not about how to be a good Muslim. Instead most of the text is devoted to the unbeliever. The Koran devotes 64% of its total words to the unbeliever and the Trilogy, as a whole, devotes 60% of its text to the unbelievers.

Islam is NOT a religion. It is a complete civilization with a detailed political system, religion and a legal code-the Sharia. Mohammed preached the religion of Islam for 13 years in Mecca and got 150 Arabs to convert to Islam. He went to Medina and became a politician and a war-lord. After 2 years in Medina, every Jew was murdered, enslaved, or exiled. He was involved in an event of violence on the average of every 6 weeks for the last 9 years of his life. Mohammed died without a single enemy left standing.

This was not a religious process, but a political process. Jihad is political action with a religious motivation. Political Islam is the doctrine that deals with the non-Muslim.

Mohammed did not succeed with his program of religion, but his political process of jihad triumphed. Sharia law is the political implementation of the Islamic civilization.

The political nature of Islam is what creates the major difference between Sharia and Jewish religious law, halaka. Jewish law has nothing to say about non-Jews and explicitly says that the law of the land trumps halaka.

Sharia has a lot to say about Kafirs and how they are to be treated, subjugated and ruled. Sharia claims political supremacy over the Constitution.

There is nothing good for non-Muslims in the Sharia. This is why every unbeliever has a reason to know Sharia law, especially those in politics, policy, regulation and legal matters. Sharia law is about the unbeliever as well as the Muslim. Islam’s attitudes and actions about unbelievers are political, not religious.

Even though Sharia violates every principle of our Constitution, it is being implemented today, since Islam is seen as only as a religion.

MUSLIMS AND SHARIA

Non-Muslims call Muslims that seem nice, moderate Muslims. This use of the word “moderate” is not based on Islam.

A moderate Muslim is one who follows the Sharia. As much as they follow the Sharia, they are a Muslim. To the degree they don’t follow the Sharia, they are a failure at being a Muslim.

The Sharia is based on the perfect, unchanging Koran and Sunna. Therefore, the Sharia is perfect and unchanging. If every Muslim in the world wanted to change a single letter of the Koran, the Sunna or the Sharia, they could not. How can perfection be improved? How can an eternal text be changed? Since the Sharia is nothing more than a codification of perfect, unchanging, universal texts, it is a perfect, unchanging and universal legal code.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

If you read something in this book and want to know more, most paragraphs have an index number. You can look it up.
Koran 1:2 is a reference to the Koran, chapter 1, verse 2.
Ishaq 123 is a reference to Ishaq’s Sira, margin note 123.
[Bukhari 1,3,4] is a reference to Sahih Bukhari, volume 1, book 3, number 4. (Sahih means authoritative and authentic.)
[Muslim 012, 1234] is a reference to Sahih Muslim, book 12, number 1234.
Bill Warner, Center for the Study of Political IslamPermalink
copyright (c) CBSX, LLCpoliticalislam.com Use and distribute as you wish; do not edit and give us credit.

“Palestine”, an open-air prison?

By Tom Gross

In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mideast, has been full of stories about “activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials.”

The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)

Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent “mass humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.

What they won’t tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip’s crowded shops and markets. Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn’t fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write.

Here, courtesy of the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, is a report on Gaza’s new Olympic-sized swimming pool . (Most Israeli towns don’t have Olympic-size swimming pools. One wonders how an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid builds an Olympic size swimming pool and creates a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?)

If you pop into the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, you can “dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu”.

The restaurant’s website in Arabic gives a window into middle class dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza. And here it is in English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don’t tell their readers about them).

And here is a promotional video of the club restaurant . In case anyone doubts the authenticity of this video, I just called the club in Gaza City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are dining there.

In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the “after effects” of a previous “emergency Gaza boat flotilla,” when the arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked shops. (You can also scroll down here for more pictures of Gaza’s “impoverished” shops.)

But the mainstream liberal international media won’t report on any of this. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy: if we had their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.

Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of Netivot or Rahat?)

But the way that many prominent Western news media are deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel’s fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish state – which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and reporters involved in the first place.

National Post

Tom Grossis a former Middle East correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph and the New York Daily News.

Behind the Headlines: The Israeli humanitarian lifeline to Gaza

25 May 2010

Despite attacks by Hamas, Israel maintains an ongoing humanitarian corridor for the transfer of food and humanitarian supplies to Gaza, used by internationally recognized organizations including the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Humanitarian aid despite Hamas attacks

Despite attacks by Hamas, Israel maintains an ongoing humanitarian corridor for the transfer of perishable and staple food items to Gaza. This conduit is used by internationally recognized organizations including the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel over the last 18 months equaling nearly a ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza. Millions of dollars worth of international food aid continually flows through the Israeli humanitarian apparatus, ensuring that there is no food shortage in Gaza.

Food and supplies are shipped from Israel to Gaza six days a week. These items were channeled through aid organizations or via Gaza’s private sector.

Large quantities of essential food items like baby formula, wheat, meat, dairy products and other perishables are transferred daily and weekly to Gaza. Fertilizers that cannot be used to make explosives are shipped into the Strip regularly, as are potato seeds, eggs for reproduction, bees, and equipment for the flower industry.

In 2009 alone, more than 738,000 tons of food and supplies entered Gaza. Pictures in local newspapers show local markets aplenty with fruit, vegetables, cheese, spices, bread and meat to feed 1.4 million Gazans.

In the first quarter of 2010 (January-March), 94,500 tons of supplies were transferred in 3,676 trucks to the Strip: 48,000 tons of food products; 40,000 tons of wheat; 2,760 tons of rice; 1,987 tons of clothes and footwear; 553 tons of milk powder and baby food.

In a typical week the IDF coordinates the transfer of hundreds of trucks containing about 15,000 tons of supplies. During the week of May 18, 2010 there were more than 100 truckloads of animal food, 65 trucks of fruit and vegetables; 22 truckloads of sugar, some 27 truckloads of meat, poultry and fish; and 40 trucks of dairy products. At holiday times, Israel increases transfers. During the Muslim holy days of Ramadhan and Eid al-Adha, Israel shipped some 11,000 heads of cattle into the Strip.

Maintaining medical aid for all in need

The medical corridor

No Palestinian is denied medical care in Israel. However, if the Hamas regime does not grant permits for medical care, the Israeli government can do nothing to help the patient. Israel will facilitate all cases of medical treatments from Gaza, unless the patient is a known perpetrator of terror.

Israel maintains a corridor for the transfer of medical patients out of Gaza, and about 200 medical staff members go through the crossings every month. Israel also helps coordinate the transfer of Jordanian doctors into Gaza.

In 2009 alone, 10,544 patients and their companions left the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in Israel. Moreover, there were 382 emergency evacuations from Gaza for medical purposes.

The Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem donates $3 million in aid annually to treat Palestinians in Israel. Following fears of a swine flu outbreak, three Israeli hospitals were assigned to treat cases in the Gaza Strip and 44,500 immunizations were transferred to the Strip.

Since 2005, Palestinians exploited medical care arrangements more than 20 times to carry out terror attacks.

Medical equipment

In 2009, some 4,883 tons of medical equipment and medicine were brought in.

In the first quarter of 2010, Israel shipped 152 trucks of medical supplies and equipment into Gaza. In a typical week (in May 2010), some 37 truckloads of hygiene products were shipped to Gaza through the land crossings. In addition, a new CAT scan machine was recently shipped to Gaza.

Building for the future: Infrastructure and economic aid

Building materials

While the import of cement and iron has been restricted into Gaza since these are used by the Hamas to cast rockets and bunkers, monitored imports of truckloads of cement, iron, and building supplies such as wood and windows are regularly coordinated with international parties. Already in the first quarter of 2010, 23 tons of iron and 25 tons of cement were transferred to the Gaza Strip.

On 13 May 2010, Israel allowed approximately 39 tons of building material into Gaza to help rebuild a damaged hospital. The construction material for al Quds hospital was transferred after safeguards in place and French assurances ensured that the construction material would not be diverted elsewhere.

On 24 May 2010 Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to 97 trucks loaded with aid and goods, including six trucks holding 250 tons of cement and one truck loaded with five tons of iron for projects executed and operated by UNRWA.

Electricity

According to the UN report of May 2010, 120 megawatts (over 70%) of the Strip’s electricity supply comes from the Israeli electric grid, while 17 MWs come from Egypt and 30 MWs are produced by the Gaza city power station. Since January 2010, there has been deterioration in the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip since the Hamas regime is unwilling to purchase the fuel to run the Gaza City power station.

Throughout 2009 Israel transferred 41 trucks of equipment for the maintenance of Gaza’s electricity grid.

Israel facilitates the transfer of fuel through the border, and maintains that the diversion of fuel from domestic power generators to other uses is wholly a Hamas decision. Over 133 million liters of fuel entered Gaza from Israel over the last 18 months.

Sewage

During the first quarter of 2010, the UN coordinated with Israel the transfer of equipment for UNWRA to upgrade the sewage pumping station. In 2009, 127 trucks containing more than 3,000 tons of hypochlorite entered the Gaza Strip for water purification purposes. Moreover, 48 trucks of equipment for improving the sanitation infrastructure led to a substantial reduction in the Beit Lahya facility’s waste levels.

Economy

The United States, Israel, Canada, and the European Union have frozen funds to the Palestinian Hamas government since 2006, recognizing it as a terror organization. Israel has taken measures to support trade and commerce, the banking system, and the existing financial market in the Gaza Strip.

Gazans produce much of their own food products including olives, citrus, vegetables, Halal beef, and dairy products. Primary exports from Gaza are cut flowers and citrus, with trade partners being Israel, Egypt and the West Bank. During 2009, 7.5 million tons of flowers and 54 tons of strawberries were exported from Gaza with Israeli cooperation.

In 2009, 1.1 billion shekels (about $250 million) were transferred to the Gaza Strip for the ongoing activity of international organizations and to pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority workers. 40 million damaged bank notes were traded for new bills, and at the request of the Palestinian Monetary Fund, 282.5 million shekels were transferred from Gazan to Israeli banks.

In February 2010, an agreement was reached with the Palestinian Authority’s National Insurance Department to ensure that pensions reached those formerly employed in Israel. The funds were deposited in banks in Judea and Samaria, while the Palestinian Authority was given the responsibility of distributing the funds to the pensioners in Gaza.

Fostering hope and trust – Quality of life in Gaza

The cycle of life

Projected life expectancy in the Gaza Strip (2010) is 73.86, greater than Estonia, Malaysia, Jamaica and Bulgaria.

The infant mortality rate in Gaza is 17.71 per 1000, lower than that of China, Jordan, Lebanon and Thailand.

Fertility rates are about five children per family, equal to many African nations such as Rwanda and Senegal.

Healthcare

Palestinian families receive the same subsidized healthcare as Israelis, about 10% of the cost for the same treatment in the United States.

Schoolchildren

Israel transfers school equipment supplied by UNRWA including notebooks, school bags, writing implements and textbooks. Israel is currently coordinating the transfer of 200,000 laptops for Gaza schoolchildren and the shipment of 74 maritime containers for conversion into Gaza classrooms.

About 20% of the population in Gaza owns a personal computer – this is more than Portugal, Brazil, Saudi Arabia or Russia. They have access to ADSL and dial-up Internet service, provided by one of four providers.

About 70% of Gazans own a TV and radio and have access to satellite TV or broadcast TV from the PA or Israel.

According to USAID report, 81% of households in Gaza have access to a cell phone. The PA-owned cell phone provider Jawwal has more than 1 million cellular subscribers.

Travel

Despite the inherent dangers involved, Israel permits Gazans and visitors to travel between Gaza and Israel, from Gaza to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and even abroad for medical treatment, religious pilgrimages, and business trips. Whenever possible Israel allows for diplomatic activities and trade and commerce with the Gaza Strip.

In additional to medical travel, 21,200 activists from international organizations and over 400 diplomatic delegations were permitted entry into Gaza, while 2,200 Palestinians employed by international organizations were given exit permits from the Gaza Strip.

147 permits were given to Palestinian students for academic studies around the world and special permission was given to Gazan footballers to train in Judea and Samaria and compete in international matches abroad.

During the Christmas holiday, approximately 400 permits were given to visit Bethlehem from Gaza as well 100 permits to travel abroad. In addition, 257 permits were given to businessmen from Gaza to facilitate business operations.

No Mosque at Ground Zero!

Why? Read on:

These mosques, symbols of Islamic triumphalism, will be icons on every Islamic and jihadist website. Despicable. Wouldn’t it have been a wonderful, peace loving gesture for the ummah to have declared ground zero a mosque free zone?

That could never happen. 911 is, for Islam, the day they conquered America. Imagine the Muslim call to prayer at Ground Zero.

Smaller Mosque Near Ground Zero by Ed Barnes – FOXNews.comAs controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages.

As controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages.

The Masjid Mosque has raised $8.5 million and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to begin construction. While it apparently has not settled on a final location, it has told donors it plans to build very close to where 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terror attacks.

In fact, the website appealing for donations boldly states that it plans to “build the ‘House of Allah’ next to the World Trade Center. Help us raise the flag of ‘LA ILLAH ILLA ALLAH’ in downtown Manhattan.”

One source said he believed the planners are considering a five-story building on 23 Park Place, closer to Ground Zero than the 13-story mosque the Cordoba Initiative is planning to build. But a tax record search shows that 23 Park Place is in private hands and has not changed owners since 2008.

Unlike the massive $100 million Cordoba House mosque, the Masjid Mosque is small – and it is no stranger to the neighborhood. Since 1970 it had been located at 12 Warren Street, about four blocks north of the World Trade Center, in a neat but nondescript industrial space that once housed a printing shop. It lost its lease in 2008 when the building was sold, and it was evicted from its second-floor prayer space on May 25 of that year. Since then it has been operating out a cramped basement space in a nearby building at 20 Warren Street.

On Friday evenings the mosque, which is popular with street vendors and taxi drivers, becomes so crowded that worshipers spill onto nearby sidewalks to pray in what has come to be a community event.

Wafa Sultan: A Mosque at Ground Zero Equals Victory Jihadwatch”It is crucial to study the supremacist ideology of Islam and to recognize, for example, that the building of a mosque especially at Ground Zero is viewed by Muslims as a decisive victory over the infidels in Islam’s march to establish its ultimate goal: the submission of all others to Islam and to Sharia Law.”

A new mosque is now being planned in New York near “Ground Zero,” two blocks from where the World Trade Center used to be. This mosque is headed by an Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder of the Cordoba Initiative, who proposes to convert the now-shuttered Burlington Coat Factory on Park Place into an Islamic Cultural Center which would contain a mosque.It is crucial to study the supremacist ideology of Islam and to recognize, for example, that the building of a mosque especially at Ground Zero is viewed by Muslims as a decisive victory over the infidels in Islam’s march to establish its ultimate goal: the submission of all others to Islam and to Sharia Law.

On a daily bases, in so many parts of the world, deadly attacks are perpetrated by Jihadists either against non Muslims or, frequently, against Muslims — especially Muslim women. The terror type of Jihad, however, is only one way for Islamists to accomplish their mission of making the “Kafir,” or infidels, submit to Sharia Law. Another method is, as the author Robert Spencer calls it, an insidious, creeping “Stealth Jihad.”

While Mr. Shahzad is the impatient Jihadist who attempts to destroy the West through terror, there is also the second type of Jihadist, who is much more patient, and who employs the “Stealth Jihad.” The Stealth Jihadis are subtle in their approach and take their time to accomplish the same objective of submitting us all under Islam and under Sharia Law.

Recently, two separate episodes highlight this gloomy reality. The first is the attempted bombing of Times Square by the Pakistani terrorist, Faisal Shahzad, called by Leon de Winter “The Foreclosure Terrorist” from an anchor at CNN who said, “It can be confirmed that his house has been foreclosed in recent years. I mean, one would have to imagine, that brought a lot of pressure and a lot of heartache on that family.”

To someone who grew up in a Muslim country, as I did, this can only be seen as ludicrous. Perhaps there should be a formal Fatwa, or religious edict called the “Foreclosure Jihad.” No doubt, those at Al Azhar University in Cairo – the epicenter of Islamic jurisprudence — might like this idea: It is an effective way to conceal the true narrative of Islam….

What is a free country? Is it a country that is free of being ruled by any other country, or is it a country of free people who are not afraid. The truth is that no country can be free, unless its people are free. Not freedom as embodied in legal documents or stirring anthems, which nearly every country has, but free in their minds. Unafraid to believe, to speak and to live.

Tyranny isn’t a man holding a gun to your head and telling you what to do. Tyranny is when you do what you’re told, because you’re holding the gun to your own head. And then you have become a collaborator in your own oppression. It is possible to be enslaved without ever becoming a slave. And it is sadly possible for people to act like slaves without any chains being anywhere in sight.

No regime, no ideology and no power can maintain absolute physical control of all the people, all of the time. To rule, they need to control not their bodies, but their minds and their souls. Tyranny wants loyalty, but it will settle for fear. And fear once internalized, destroys moral courage and replaces it with moral cowardice, eroding the strength of beliefs and ideas with the poisonous liquid of dread. The individual becomes an agent for the forces of tyranny, warning himself against any action that could get him into trouble. And then he is finally a slave.

In Stockholm Syndrome, hostages try to take control of their powerlessness by identifying with their captors. Under tyranny, entire populations can suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, paying devoted obeisance to the tyrants who murder them in numberless amounts. Because once oppression is internalized, it comes to seem like a benediction. The mind forged slave embraces his chains as a moral good, clings to them as an expression of all that is right and sensible in the world. He will even die for them. Because to a slave, freedom is more terrifying than death.

Recently we rediscovered the simple fact that even on Cable television, on a network where anything goes, one thing does not go. Depicting Mohammed. Even in a bear suit. That same iron law has been unofficially passed in country after country, where operas, newspapers, books, television programs have all been censored in order to avoid offending the people who might kill them if they were not censored. Speech and image have been blocked, cut out, snipped and silenced. Not because anyone has actually been killed, but because attempts have been made to kill some people. Which is apparently enough to make free speech go the way of the Dodo.

And that is exactly the point. They don’t have to silence us, if we silence ourselves first. They don’t have to oppress us, if we oppress ourselves first. They don’t have to demand our surrender and submission, if we surrender and submit first. Islam, we love it. Sharia law, we’ll gladly adopt it. Free speech, it has to have its limits. Women’s rights, we’ll have to walk a fine line. Freedom. Ha, what freedom. We’ve already traded that away for a nice set of multicultural bongos, a few curry shops, a glass of arack and a leatherbound copy of the Koran.

A free country is not one that nickel and dimes its birthright of freedom like a ten year old begging his parents to extend his curfew. It is a country whose people uncompromisingly refuse to surrender their freedoms, in the face of tyranny, torture and death. In the face of armies, tanks, secret police and all the forces of the world arrayed against them. And a country that compromises on its freedom is no longer free. It will know fear. It will know terror. It will be oppressed, and there will be no relief from that oppression, until they choose freedom over tyranny once again.

Fear is a reflex. Tyranny thrives on it, imbues it and feeds it. It kills randomly in order to spread that terror further. To create populations who never know when their day will come. When the suicide bomber, the black van, the sword and the secret police will come for them. Men will fight and die for freedom on the battlefield, but the struggle to remain defiant in a society where everyone is afraid all the time is a much harder fight. Yet overcoming that reflex to find safety by surrendering and collaborating, by learning to love Big Brother and embracing his ideals, is what it takes to be a free citizen of a free nation.

Pavlov, the formulator of the Pavlov Reflex, knew quite a lot about conditioning. His own experiments showed that fear could be conditioned by the ringing of a bell. Perhaps those insights were what enabled Pavlov to go on defying the Soviet Union for decades. At a time when most scientists and researchers were terrified out of their minds at a slip, a wrong word that might send them to a long death in the basements of the Lubyanka or an even longer death in the Gulags– Pavlov would ride buses and lecture the passengers on the fascism of the Soviet regime. And while those scientists eventually ended up in the Gulags themselves, Pavlov died a natural death.

Where so many Russians had become conditioned to hear the ringing of the bell everywhere, and to search for it when they didn’t, to be afraid all the time, and to love the thing they feared in order to have some measure of security– Pavlov understood the reflex and rejected it. He chose to be a free man instead. And freedom comes from standing up to evil. From confronting it and defying it. Not from submitting to it and collaborating with it. From silencing yourself in the hope that you will no longer be afraid when the bell rings.

Today the bell is Islam. The bell is Mohammed. That two headed religion with its two faces, the Religion of Peace and the Religion of Death. And if you focus hard enough on it as the Religion of Peace, perhaps you won’t notice the grinning skull on its other side. And so the bell rings, and the poodles run to their master, licking his hands and showering him with adoration. Oh yes Islam is a wonderful religion. It has so many human rights. Truly it is a paragon for us today. If only we could be as free as Muslims. If only.

And what is the source of Islam’s power? Comedy Central reminds us of that again. Its power is simple enough. Its followers are more willing to kill those who resist, than those who are not its followers are willing to resist them.

No military victory. No superior technology. Not even sheer numbers, as there is still no First World country in which Muslims have officially become a majority. Their power comes from fear. From being prepared to murder anyone who disagrees with them. Until the mere threat alone, from a worthless source, is enough to badly panic a multibillion dollar corporation. The same corporation that would never take protests from Jews or Christians seriously, caves when a single Muslim on a previously obscure website threatens a beheading. What is the difference? The difference is murder. Muslims murder people who offend them. And having gained a reputation for that, they are quickly parlaying it into practical political power.

A nation’s police, legal and military divisions are entirely useless if they cannot protect the exercise of such basic freedoms. Without that they become nothing more than glorified social service centers that enforce the law only when it isn’t too dangerous for them. Only when it won’t offend the wrong people. The wrong people being those who kill on casual provocation. And such a country, though it may have documents to its name attesting its freedoms, and endless ranks of judiciary appointees and professors debating those freedoms– they mean nothing if the people cannot actually exercise those freedoms.

The Bush Administration’s War on Terror did not actually put an end to fear of Islamic terrorism, instead it fed it with endless alerts and prolonged battles thousands of miles away, while in the heart of civilization, terror remained emboldened enough to wave its green scimitar decorated flag. That is why the assault on Salman Rushdie was in some ways a more significant strategic blow than 9/11. On 9/11 thousands of our fellow Americans died. But when we surrender to Islamic terror and intimidation, our freedom dies. For everyone. And the bell begins to ring.

Only by defying Islam, can we begin the process of taking back our freedoms. Only by speaking out, do our voices matter. Because they don’t have to silence us, if we silence ourselves first.

Thanks to the Sultan for these insightful words:

WWI was caused less by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and more by Germany and Austria Hungary’s eagerness to appease the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Before and during WW2, England and Germany both assiduously courted Muslim support in the Middle East. The Holocaust was one of the byproducts of this rivalry, as Germany courted Arab Muslims by appealing to the genocidal impulses of the likes of the Mufti of Jerusalem, while England courted them by reneging its agreements, and shutting the door to Jewish refugees trying to flee Europe for Israel. While the Holocaust would have happened regardless, it is likely that the death toll would have been significantly lower, without the presence of Islam in the equation.

After the war nothing changed much, except the names of the players. The competition itself however still went on. Instead of England and Germany competing for Islam’s favor, it was not the US and the USSR. Both sides cultivated patron Muslim countries, spent and lost huge sums of money on them, and then got a knife in the back for it, time and time again.

The US courted Saudi Arabia under the fanatical rule of the House of Saud, America’s oldest partner in the region. In return the Saudi royal family nationalized American oil companies (for which the US government compensated the companies with taxpayer dollars) and then used that money to fund a global Jihad, while the royals incidentally began buying up major chunks of America. 9/11 was only the topper on a large poisonous cake that had been baking in the febrile heat of the Saudi desert for a long time, as petrodollars fed fanatical Islamic pre-medieval beliefs that had been growing steadily more arrogant and insane in direct proportion to the amount of wealth flowing in.

The USSR tried to export Communism, but had to settle for backing the likes of Egyptian dictator Nasser, despite his casual slaughter of domestic Communists. The heap of corruption in Cairo was considered such a great prize that both the US and the USSR competed feverishly for it. The US betrayed England, France and Israel in 1956 by backing Nasser’s seizure of the Suez Canal and forcing their withdrawal through economic blackmail, an act that Eisenhower would later admit he deeply regretted. Nevertheless Nasser threw in with the USSR, which was the most willing to pile on the weapons exports.

But devotees of happy endings will be glad to hear that after losing several wars with those same weapons, the United States finally won the bidding war for one slightly used alliance with Egypt. At a cost of only a few billion dollars a year and turning a blind eye to the persecution of Christian Copts. And things have never been better. The Obama Administration recently slashed funds for promoting democracy in Egypt by 50 percent off. Which is a discount when you think about it, because 50 percent off Egyptian democracy is a bargain, when you consider that it’s an item much harder to find than platinum or gold.

When Obama visited Egypt’s Al Azhar University, he naturally made sure to praise it as a source of knowledge and enlightenment. He may or may not have had in mind one Al Azhar scholar who issued a Fatwa which said that a grown man and woman could be alone together, only if she breastfeeds him first. (This sort of radical reformism would not fly in Iran, where students of different sexes studying together are required to get temporarily married first, a procedure also used to legalize prostitute. One can only imagine what European educational systems will look like under Islam.)

But while the breastfeeding Fatwa may seem ridiculous, Al Azhar University is also the source of far less humorous fatwas. It also happens to be a source of terrorism and Islamic extremism. But don’t worry about your tax dollars going to indirectly fund terrorism. At least not if you’re British, because then your tax dollars are going directly to Al Azhar University, to run the The Al-Azhar English Training Centre (AAETC), whose mission is to “give students the skills to “discuss and explain Islam“. It is certainly generous of British taxpayers to be forced to underwrite training for Muslim missionaries, because the “Captain Hooks” of tomorrow can’t be expected to set up shop in Manchester with no English skills. But this program nevertheless needs to be praised for trying to teach Al Azhar graduates to promote Islam by speaking to people, instead of blowing them up or chopping off their heads.

This is what courting Islam looks like. A flattering speech here and there. Loose immigration policies. A terrorist set free by the British government in exchange for an oil deal. The US government turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s role in terrorism in exchange for more oil deals. The French government shaking its fist a little at a few rogue imams and then quieting down, hoping that the 5 million Muslims got the message, and will try and keep the car burning down on weekends, and then promoting a Mediterranean alliance, just as Russia is promoting a Bosporus alliance– as if Muslims would allow themselves to be ruled by non-Muslims for very long.

Madness? No, competition. The Muslim world has a lot of oil and a lot of people, and Western governments want the former, while keeping the latter peaceable. And that means competing for Islam’s favor with each other, with the newly resurgent Russia which is back to its old ways of shipping weapons by the fleet, China which is feeling its global oats and poking its head well beyond its borders now– but mostly the Muslims themselves.

Before WW1, Western European nations were competing with each other for the favor of Muslim rulers. Before WW2, England and Germany were competing for the favor of Muslim rulers with each other. During the Cold War, the US and the USSR were competing for the favor of Muslim rulers. But today the remnants of the civilized world are competing for the favor of Muslims, against the Muslims. In effect we’re bidding up against ourselves. Because the big threat today is no longer Western, it’s Islamic. The old competition was about forming alliances with the Muslim world against the enemy of the day. Today the enemy of the day is Muslim. That phantom menace we call “Islamic Extremism” if we’re feeling terribly politically correct, and “Islam” if we’re not.

If the old rivalries at least provided some rational justification for this gamesmanship, today it’s more like holding up a sign reading, “We’re nice. Please don’t kill us.” On paper we’re competing to uphold “moderate” Muslim regimes against the Islamists who would otherwise take over. Which means we’re competing with the Islamists to win the favor of Muslim rulers and populations. This is considered Realpolitik. Meanwhile the left argues that we’re only upholding dictators, and that if we stopped supporting them, the people would overthrown them, stop hating us and form socialist republics. The last time this was tried, the Carter Administration gave us Iran.

But of course this is only two sides of the same insane coin. Either we pacify the dictators, who already support Islamic terrorism, so that the real awful Islamist dictators won’t come to power… and then really support terrorism. Or we overthrow the dictators, and let the real awful Islamist dictators come to power, because maybe they’re not so bad after all. Maybe we can have an oil deal with them. And train some of them to explain Islam to us in good English, hopefully without chopping our heads off first.

And that right there is the problem. Our foreign policy is a debate between the realists who want appeasement, and the lunatics who think the natural outcome of every revolution is socialism, and even when it isn’t (as in the case of Iran) they’ll pretend it is anyway to avoid looking as stupid as they should feel. Of course there’s always a third option, and I don’t mean invading them, rebuilding them, and then withdrawing in time for them to adopt Sharia law. Stop competing. Stop courting the good opinion of a backward ideology that still thinks women are a form of inconvenient bacteria and that non-Muslims should always defer to Muslims. Stop pandering to them. Stop bowing and scraping to them. Stop giving them weapons, visas and then wondering what happens when the bombs begin going off.

Once upon a time we competed against each other, today we’re courting one side of the Muslim world’s schizophrenic split personality, against the other side. We approach the two-headed hound of Islam, and then argue over which head we should pat first, to keep the beast from biting us. It’s all one beast. And feeding scraps to one head or the other, won’t win us anything except more bites. The thing to do is to stop feeding the beast and stop being under the impression that there’s more than one hound in question. It’s all one animal. And it hates us. And it will go on hating us. And it will go on biting us for as long as we let it.

We are no longer bidding for the Muslim world as an ally. We are bidding to prevent it from being our enemy. But the problem is that the very people we’re bidding for, already see us as the enemy. We are not going to change that with free English lessons, weapons and speeches praising their enlightenment, and clapping with delight when one of their clerics sorta suggests that terrorism is probably wrong. We’re not children and we’re not cowards, and we should stop acting like both. By competing for Muslim favor, we are only bidding ourselves, and paying up to the very people who are our enemies. By competing for their favor, we are only undercutting ourselves.